Vibrant and spirited grassroots campaigns, including water and housing, have invigorated and energised people, movements and political actors in Ireland. Many of us now speak about austerity, neoliberalism, and the ruling elite that has lost touch with the majority of the people. We speak about and see the connections between the water-tax, the nationalisation of private debt, the housing and homelessness crisis, the scandal of direct provision, the crumbling health care system, trade agreements like TTIP, privatisation of public goods, services and natural resources, the decimation of the community sector, the assault of structural violence and institutional racism, and much, much more.

Still, this awakened public consciousness of how the powers that be operate and influence our lives is not yet visible in the collaboration of social movement groups who work on these issues.

Hence, we invite you to a weekend of discussion intended to establish what connects us

and to work out collectively if there are common strategies or projects we can pursue together to strengthen all of our movements.

Theodoros Karyotis is a sociologist, translator and activist participating in social movements that promote self-management, solidarity economy and defence of the commons. A member of the Initiative of Solidarity with the Vio.Me, a self-managedfactory, (viome.org) and the Initiative 136 for the social control of Thessaloniki’s water services (136.gr). He helps organise the annual Direct Democracy Festival, an international event that brings together collectives, activists and academics around the issue of constructing radical alternatives to capitalism from below.

Cian O'Callaghan is an independent left wing councillor on Fingal County Council. He has being involved in both grassroots activism and electoral politics in Dublin since the 1990s.

Moderator:

Caoimhe Butterly has worked with social justice movements and grassroots community projects in Chiapas, Guatemala, Haiti, Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon for over 12 years. Presently engaged in post-graduate studies at Kimmage DSC, her research is focused on migrant women's activism and self-organisation. She is active with anti-racism, migrant justice and other movements in Ireland.

More panellists to be announced in the coming days.

Strategy Workshops, Saturday March 7th, 10 am to 5 pm

A full day of workshops and discussions all day on Saturday 7th March. For more information see below. Also check out Gluaiseacht for Global Justice on Facebook.

The second day of our Grassroots Strategy weekend will be a full day of workshops and discussions about what we have in common and how we might wish to work together across movements.

How to prepare:

If you have time, we have prepared some questions (see below) for participants to answer. You can do this either in your campaign group or individually in order to prepare for the workshops. Please send your answer back to makingwavesinireland@gmail.com.

Schedule:

Session 1: 10 am – 11 am, opening session“Making Waves: voices from European and Irish social movements”In this session, we will hear from movement organisers from Ireland, Spain, and Greece, who will speak about how movements in their countries have come together. This will be followed by an open discussion.

Session 2: 11 am – 12.30 am“Creating links in Ireland”What links all of our movements? What do we have in common? What are the common targets? What are the roots of the problems?

The attached questions sheet will be very helpful in preparing for this session, and will contribute to the following sessions.

- How do we create stronger links between existing Irish initiatives?- What initiatives and struggles needs to be developed?- How do we dismantle media narratives that focus on misleading causes and bogus solutions? How can we build a counter narrative? - How do we plan actions together? Should we?- How can we avoid duplication of work?

Lunch: 1.30 pm – 2.30 pm

Lunch will be provided, please RSVP in advance so we order enough food.

These questions are designed to form a common working document for the workshops. The answers will be collated, and we will give general feedback of the results to participants. The findings will be generalised and anonymous, and are intended to form a starting point for discussion in the workshops.

Present your group in one paragraph, if you are in a group (ethos, purpose, membership/who is in your group) in 3-5 sentences.

Have you or your group identified a root cause of the issues you're working on / what are the underlying issues? (e.g. lack of 'real' democracy, the markets, elites ruling in their own interests, etc.)

A: In the context of your campaign/group, who are the antagonists? (e.g. politicians, companies, etc.)

B: What are the obstacles? Are any of them global? Are any of them specific to the Irish context?

A: Which groups do you see as your allies?

B: If you could see your campaign moving to another issue what would it be?